What Goes Around Comes Around
by DarkRedRoses
Summary: "Really, sometimes it almost seemed like they were having a contest." Ariadne sees Arthur and Eames arguing and decides to keep the score for a week. One-shot, set during the movie, humor - with somewhat of a twist at the end -, no pairings.


**A/N**: I don't know where this came from... really, I don't. Inception is one of my favorite movies at the moment, so I guess writing a fanfic about it was inevitable. Anyway, I hope you like my first attempt to write something (funny) about Inception. ;D

**Disclaimer**: I don't own it, and never will.

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**What Goes Around Comes Around**

The sun shone brightly and a gentle breeze rustled trough Ariadne's hair. She felt a bit down after her classes, but even with this heat, the good weather improved her mood slightly. The workshop was only a couple of streets away now and she looked forward to test a few new details she had designed. Well, she had wanted to test it yesterday, but Cobb said it was already too late and that she should go home. He hadn't exactly given her a choice, so she just decided to wait – even though patience wasn't her strongest point.

As soon as she stepped inside the building, she could recognize two familiar voices arguing. She didn't even need to think about who it could be and walked to her own desk. Pretending not to hear Arthur and Eames' bickering seemed like the easiest solution, so she sat down and pulled out her map with various drawings. On the other hand, it was always fun to hear how those two could make a big issue out of something trivial. Just listening to them wouldn't hurt…

"I thought I told you to aim that fan in _that_ direction Eames!" Arthur was standing next to his desk, which was – to Ariadne's surprise – covered with papers in messy piles. The disarray was probably caused by the somewhat old-fashioned fan that stood a bit further. "When I leave for five minutes, I'd rather not discover all my files blown away when I come back."

Eames was sitting in one of the chairs, seemingly relaxed with his characteristic smirk on his face and reading through some new information on Browning. "In that case, you should speak a bit louder next time Arthur, because I'm sure that you never said such a thing to me. As a matter of fact, I don't think the others heard anything either."

This earned him a glare from Cobb, who was busy at his own desk. "Don't get us involved in this."

"Whatever you say." Eames just shrugged before directing his attention back to Arthur. "But it's not my fault that we had to use that fan. I can't help it that the bloody air conditioning decided to break down today."

"Still, it's obvious that my files would get blown away if you put it like that. Do you have any idea how long it's going to take me to order them again?" Even though Arthur looked mostly calm, he still showed signs of annoyance. This only seemed to encourage the forger.

"I have no idea, but I'm sure that you numbered all the papers, so it shouldn't be much of a bother, right?" His smirk became a full-grown grin when Arthur mumbled something, sighed and apparently gave up his attempts to reason with the other as he started to search through the first pile.

The scene even made Ariadne laugh softly for a moment. Really, sometimes it almost seemed like they were having a contest. Suddenly she got an idea and her smile grew a bit wider. She took out a blank piece of paper from her notebook and wrote down:

_Current score_:

_Eames_: |

_Arthur_: 0

As she pondered the events again, she decided to add something else:

_(Note_)

_Buy Arthur paperweights._

-o-

A couple of hours later everyone was talking and waiting for the food to arrive. They had been so caught up in their work that none of them had remembered that dinnertime was approaching fast. In the end, it was Yusuf who started complaining that he was hungry and the rest quickly agreed to order some Chinese food to save time. After an half-hour wait the bell ringed and Yusuf almost ran to answer the door. Arthur went after him with his wallet – the chemist had forgotten the money in his hurry – to help him carry their orders. Yusuf appeared again after a few minutes, already eating while he went back to his seat, soon followed by the point man. Arthur handed Ariadne's food first and then walked over to Cobb. Eames entered the room and looked like he was about to say something, but stopped and frowned instead.

"Now darling, everyone already knows math isn't my best subject, but as far as I can count there are only four boxes and there's five of us here. Care to explain?"

Arthur handed Cobb his food and turned to look at the forger. "What? There must have been some problems with the order at the restaurant. They only delivered four. Maybe you should call them to complain." Eames scowled and when Arthur turned around again, Ariadne was sure she saw him smirk. She picked up her note and changed the text:

_Current score_:

_Eames_: |

_Arthur_: |

Who would've thought that the stick-in-the-mud point man would take revenge?

Without a warning, Eames put his foot under one of the cables that were lying on the floor and pulled. Before anyone realized what had happened, Arthur had fallen to the floor – along with most of his meal. Ariadne blinked again and saw that the cable had come up a few inches. It wasn't much, but it was enough for Arthur to trip over. Eames chuckled. "I'm terribly sorry about that, my foot must have slipped. But admit, it's not as bad when you're not the only one that's excluded from enjoying dinner." He grabbed his coat and walked to the door. "I'm going to get some more food, feel free to join me." Arthur stood back up and ran after him, yelling some things that Ariadne never would've imagined him saying in public.

Cobb acted like nothing happened and was having a conversation with Yusuf, who had already finished half his portion of rice. Ariadne sighed and took her pencil again.

_Current score_:

_Eames_: ||

_Arthur_: |

_(Note 2_)

_Don't mess with men and their food when they're hungry._

-o-

The next few days were hectic as always, filled with work and some more arguments between Eames and Arthur. True, the things the point man came up with were a lot more subtle then Eames' pranks, but they were effective nonetheless.

For example, there were all those calls on Eames' mobile number from people who kept chattering about a certain add they had read in the newspaper. It was funny to see how Eames tried to explain everything to all those people, even if he didn't understand what was going on. The fact that he's in Paris, but can't speak a coherent sentence in French only made his situation worse. Ariadne had never seen Arthur in such a good mood before that day.

Unfortunately for him, Eames got his revenge by throwing a bucket of water over him while he was testing Yusuf's newest compound. "I was just looking if the stability was good enough" the forger said to him afterwards. "It had absolutely nothing to do with that expensive new suit you were wearing today."

Arthur's anger resulted in Eames calling with the creditcard company for two hours, trying to tell them that "No, I did not donate half the money on my account to charity! Someone else must've broken into it."

On Saturday evening, Ariadne had written down a few more things.

_Current score_:

_Eames_: |||

_Arthur_: |||

_(Note 3_)

_Never enter a dream if Eames is the only one around in the workshop._

_(Note 4_)

_Don't make Arthur angry: the point man has access to all our personal information (like phone numbers, bank accounts,…)_

She regretted that the week was almost over. Not that it mattered that much, they would just continue next week anyway.

-o-

Sunday was just as warm as the rest of the week, and even though Cobb had told her it was fine to take the day off and relax, she went to the workshop to check up on the others around noon. It might have also been because she wanted to know what Eames or Arthur had come up with today, but she wasn't going to admit that. To say she was surprised when she entered the room would be an understatement. For the first time this week, it was completely quiet. Both Eames and Arthur were nowhere to be seen. A voice snapped her out of her musings.

"I thought you weren't coming today?"

She turned around to face Cobb. From the look of it, he had been helping Yusuf with some tests. "I know, but I'm not here to work. I just wanted to see how you guys were doing."

"We're just fine." Answered Yusuf from somewhere in his lab. "We were just wrapping up an experiment."

"Oh, that explains the silence. Are Arthur and Eames helping you too?"

"Well, actually– " Yusuf started.

"Yes, they were helping us." Cobb finished in his place.

This confused the architect. "Were? Then what are they doing now?"

A sound that looked suspiciously much like a laugh came from the lab. Cobb glanced back a moment before answering. "Some of us would have liked to get some work done this week and were tired of their constant fights, so we made sure that we wouldn't be bothered by them for the rest of the day."

Ariadne blinked. "I'm not sure I understand what you're saying–"

"I just kept them sedated a bit longer than Cobb when we were testing the new compound and the two of us locked them up in one of the storage rooms while they were unconscious." Yusuf appeared in the doorframe and grinned. "Don't worry, they'll wake up in a few minutes."

Ariadne could feel her jaw drop. "A-are you sure that's a good idea? You don't know what could happen! Knowing those two, they could try to kill each other!" Her two team members just stared at her and she took a few deep breaths. "Alright, maybe I overreacted a bit. Even they wouldn't do something like that. But is this really necessary?"

Cobb shrugged and walked back to the lab. "At least we'll be able to work in peace now."

Still dumbfounded about the drastic measures Cobb took, Ariadne reached for her piece of paper and scribbled one last thing on it.

_Final score_:

_Eames_: 3

_Arthur_: 3

_**Winner**_: _Cobb & Yusuf_

_Final Note_:

_Don't underestimate an irritated Cobb or Yusuf. You don't want to have a master-manipulator and a chemist plotting against you…_


End file.
